Car bomb attacks kill 37 people in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — A string of car bomb attacks across Iraq killed at least 37 people on Thursday, Iraqi officials said. Three of the attacks targeted Shiite districts in the capital, Baghdad, while the fourth targeted a Kurdish neighborhood in the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk.

Police officials said the first attack targeted a line of small restaurants in the Shiite district of Sadr City Thursday night, killing 11 people and wounding 25 others.

Minutes later, a second car bomb blast near an outdoor market in the same district killed seven people and wounded 21 others.

Later on, a bomb exploded near a restaurant in Baghdad's Shiite northern neighborhood of Shaab, killing three people and wounding 12 others.

In the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, a car bomb attack near a cafe killed 16 people, said deputy chief of the Kirkuk police, Maj. Gen. Torhan Abdul-Rahman Youssef.

The blast took place in a Kurdish district in the city, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad.

Medics in a nearby hospital confirmed the causalities. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Iraq sees near-daily bombings and other attacks mainly targeting Shiite neighborhoods and security forces. The attacks are often claimed by the Sunni extremist Islamic State group which seized much of northern and western Iraq in a summer offensive.

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Associated Press writers Murtada Faraj in Baghdad and Imad Matti in Kirkuk contributed to this report.